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Beyond Reforms: The Politics of Higher Education Transformation in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Tade Akin Aina
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Abstract:

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In spite of over a half century of interventions and waves of “reforms,” higher education in Africa today consists of institutions, systems, and practices that lack distinct values and goals, or a mission and vision connecting them to the major challenges of their local and global contexts. What is needed in African higher education is true transformation, which will involve practical and epistemological ruptures with previous ways of doing things and a reconstruction of structures, relations, cultures, and institutions. Of particular importance are initiatives that will ensure gender equity, changes in the organization and process of knowledge production, and a reenvisioning of universities' funding sources and mechanisms.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 21 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2010

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